Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Wednesday, July 28, 2010170# (I looked back at my workout log from last year. This is 8.5# more than I weighed this time last year.)

I've had a really strange run of emotions these last few days since signing up for the Lean Eating Coaching Program at Precision Nutrition. Certainly I am excited, but even more than that, I am anxious, and for what have proven to be an interesting bunch of reasons. The obvious apprehension surrounds the demands of food preparation, workouts, resisting temptation (obviously the resisting of temptation is a hard one for me). I've asked myself hundreds of times if I'm really ready for this. Will it hold up to all the traveling I have to do over the next 6 months? Am I ready to give control of my workouts over to the PN staff? Am I ready to measure and weigh and prep? These questions I anticipated.

What I failed to anticipate were the other questions and worries. What if I follow this to the letter (as I have other things for varying periods of time) and I still don't lose any weight? What then? Am I broken?...destined to spend life in my current fluffy bubble? What if it works...fabulously...and I find myself looking at an image in the mirror that I have dreamed about for longer than I care to remember? Will I finally be pumping out pull ups like a champ? Will the pistol be a breeze? Where to go from there? I'm not even there, and I feel a knot it my gut with the worry of regression. I'm not even there, and I wonder who the hell that is looking back at me from the mirror. It seems I have a constant stream of interesting thoughts about this process. My mind is truly a scary place.

WORKOUT:My nutrition has been good the last few days, so it shows in my workouts. I'm up to a 5RM pull up ladder with just the purple band and a 4RM ladder with the partial pistol. On a 13RM ladder with the push ups. They all felt really solid today, too, with the exception of the pistol on the right. Lately I've been having some issues holding tension on that side.

I realized today that I have sacrificed too much in my quest for the pull up and the pistol. My workouts have been too focused on them and I have let my ballistic conditioning slide. Duly noted. Time to readjust.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

I am a firm believer in an individual's following the path that works for her or him. No two people are exactly the same, and therefore, no two journeys are the same. By the same token, one thing might work well for a person at one point in time, while at a different time, a very different thing might be called for.I strongly believe in the power of the Primal Blueprint. The science is sound; the theory makes sense.Right now, though, I need something a little different. Mainly, I need accountability and an out-and-out challenge. So today I signed up for the Precision Nutrition Lean Eating Coaching Program. We'll see how this plays out...

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Getting my daily dosages of the "3 P's," pull ups, push ups, and pistols, has been a hard pill to take at times. It has been defeating, demoralizing, mentally exhausting. A few times it's been a comfort, like an old pair of shoes, to go out and fall into something so familiar, but mostly I have felt like I am going out each day to fight a giant, a benevolent one, but a giant nonetheless. I do feel the progress, however. As I was doing my five sets of push ups this last 5 days, the rep scheme was 12, 11, 10, 9, 9...then the next day 12, 11, 10, 10, 9, etc., I realized that for 4 sets out of 5 I was doing 10 or more perfect push ups. Only then did it occur to me that I had not only hit a long-standing goal but I had surpassed it by a long shot and not really even acknowledged it. For a very, very long time I had the goal of being able to do 10 consecutive perfect push ups. For what seemed like forever this goal seemed out of my reach, the nerdy, chubby girl's pipe dream. But then I focused on the road, not the destination, and suddenly I was there. I have to admit, I did a little dance with my workout buddies when I had that realization. And as always, one revelation leads to another, and I thought about how frustrated I am with how long it's taking me to get an unassisted pull up and a pistol. They will come just like the push ups did. I just have to focus on the road.

Monday, July 5, 2010

While not directly fitness related, I bring to you some food for thought with regard to your water consumption. I suspect that you, like me, keep water or some other drink somewhere close at hand most of the time. It seems everywhere you go, you see people with a bottle of water either in their hand or in their bags. Few of those people, however, put much thought behind the environmental repercussions (let's not even get into the associated health debate) of choosing to drink water from a bottle. Here is a little video that touches on that subject:

Tara Whitney is a photographer whose blog I follow, and a couple of months back she wrote a post regarding her efforts at leading a more environmentally friendly existence. In it, she mentioned a few of the things she has found to make that existence easier. While I had already stopped using bottled water myself, I had had an unbelievably difficult time convincing the hubby not to buy it. He argued that he just did NOT like to drink out of the containers I was using (those wide mouth 1 liter bottles), and keeping them rotated in the fridge to stay cold was just too much effort. Not to mention, the water got too warm for him before he could drink it all. To me, those all seemed like silly excuses, but they were significant enough to prevent stopping him from buying bottled water, so I needed to find a way around them. Tara's post further inspired me and the bottles below were our solution. I bought reusable plastic because Marc thought drinking out of a metal bottle sounded unappealing. I bought the metal bottle below to give them a run, too. Both sets were bought off Amazon. We already had water filters that I had been using, so now we just bottle that water up and keep it in the fridge for him. We've been doing this now for about 6 weeks, and I'm proud to say the reusable bottles are a success.And so you have an even better idea what you'll be helping to save..Much of the water you buy comes from natural springs. Lots of it even comes from the springs here in north central Florida. These springs are some of the most beautiful places I have ever been or seen. They are at risk, though, as more and more bottling companies set up near them to bottle the water from the Floridan Aquifer that feeds them. Even I have seen the effects of this over the years that I have been coming here. The water levels have noticeably dropped in just that amount of time. This picture doesn't do them justice, but take my word for it. These springs are a resource we do NOT want to lose.So, PLEASE, consider what I have brought before you, and think about how much money AND how much of our earth you can save by taking this one simple step.

About Me

I find this difficult to write, this "about me" section. Somehow I feel like it is a constant, never-ending search that I am on. Just when I think I have some small piece of it figured out, I realize that I don't.

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World's Best Workout Buddy

Abbie

Kettlebells are not for the faint of heart. They are not for those who whine about the heat or the cold or dirt or sweat--or any other thing for that matter. Kettlebells are best battled outside in the rain or sleet or sun or wind where you can beat them or they can beat you, and the story is told only by the pock marks in the grass and the dirt on your hands. Though they will do so, they are not meant to make prettier muscles but better muscles. They are meant to temper from the inside out, testing your mettle, strengthening muscle, ligament, tendon, and even a little skin. Those who fear such a challenge from a small metal ball and do not wish to bear its mark are not worthy of its gifts. And they should go home."Elitism," June 22, 2008